First Listen: Stream The First Track From ‘Pearl Jam Twenty’ Soundtrack

With 20 years under their belts, [lastfm]Pearl Jam[/lastfm] is showing no signs of slowing down, with an upcoming documentary directed by Cameron Crowe and two day concert series at Alpine Valley guaranteed to make fans party like it’s 1991. The band just released the first song off of the soundtrack to the Pearl Jam Twenty movie, digging deep into the bands back catalogue to cover Mother Love Bone’s song “Crown of Thorns.”

Pearl Jam

[lastfm]Mother Love Bone[/lastfm] was a forerunner of the grunge movement in the late eighties, blending the heavy riffs of [lastfm]Black Sabbath[/lastfm] and punk rock to help develop what would become known as the “Seattle sound.” The bandseemed destined for success, and many critics believed that they would break into the mainstream, but unfortunately Mother Love Bone also foreshadowed the drug addiction that riddled so many Seattle bands, ultimately ending with frontman Andrew Wood’s death from a heroin overdose in 1990.

Pearl Jam – “Crown Of Thorns”

However, two members of Mother Love Bone, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, were determined to start a new band that would continue where MLB left off. They recruited a drummer and another guitarist, and got a hot tip that this surfer dude from California named Eddie Vedder might be a good frontman. The rest is rock history.